


Repeat After Me

by MissFiction



Category: That '70s Show
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-05
Updated: 2017-04-05
Packaged: 2018-10-15 06:07:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10551364
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissFiction/pseuds/MissFiction
Summary: A way-too-long fic where basically nothing happens, but Steven and Jackie are cute & belong together. Mainly about Jackie's sweet little habit of  picking up words she hears Hyde using.





	

            After they start dating officially, Hyde notices that Jackie starts to pick up his little turns of phrase. She starts using these odd little verbal quirks from their conversations, and somehow most of them were things that he had never even realized _he_ said with any frequency until he heard them coming from her lips. Most notably, she started using the same phrases or words that he would use to describe things. It was different from the time where he taught her to be zen, though had definitely impacted her, too. Sometimes he would catch her muttering a reminder to _be zen_ to herself before she did something she was nervous about. No, this was something she had just started doing on her own. He called her bad ass, once, and next thing he knew she was beaming and proudly declaring her own badassery to Donna later that night.

            What really amazes him is that they would slip out so _casually_. It made him think that she probably wasn't even consciously aware of it either. It honestly fascinated him; it was almost as though Jackie was so attentive when he spoke to her that she had started to retain his _way_ of speaking. To be honest, it was a little bit unnerving; he wasn't used to having someone pay legitimately close attention to anything he had to say like that.

            Initially, having even the most basic kind of conversation with Jackie would drive him up the wall. There was only so much chatter a guy could take in one sitting, after all. However, over time, they eventually worked out ways to have meaningful conversations while spending more and more time together. It was crazy how much time they actually ended up spending with one another, and what was crazier was the fact that he started to _really_ enjoy it. The way her eyes would stay trained on his face when he expressed a thought to her, the way she would take literally anything he said under serious consideration, and even the way her nose would wrinkle when she was getting ready to disagree with him about something, became addictive features of their communication.

            Hyde had never had _that kind_ of serious romantic relationship before. That is to say, a relationship where both parties actually _wanted_ to communicate with one another on a semi-regular basis.

            Of course, once he notices the way she’s been repeating after him, he can't help but abuse it a little. He starts to use the outdated phrases he hears on old reruns of TV shows sometimes, the stuff that Kitty and Red watch in the living room, just to see if she'll still pick it up. Even though the looks he gets are pretty strange, Jackie appears unfazed. She places implicit value in everything he says, at least to some extent, and it's truly incredible. Besides that, the looks that Jackie gets are even more hilarious. The moment where you could physically see the look in people’s eyes change, as they asked themselves where on Earth is this pretty little cheerleader picking up old slang like that, was his favourite part. Or, perhaps better yet, the question as to why she would ever think it was cool for her to _use_ it. Eventually everyone around them sees what he is doing, but Jackie remains blissfully unaware. They're words that Steven uses, so she just picks them up without a thought.

            Shockingly, when he _did_ finally get caught influencing her vocabulary, it hadn't even been about the weird phrases he had been picking up and giving to her.

            He was pretty sure that she had been having a conversation with one of her classmates at the time, but Hyde wasn't really listening. Talking with _Jackie_ was fine, but he still wasn't fond of her friends. He tended to avoid actually having to speak to them when he could. In fact, he had only agreed to come to The Hub because she promised to get him fries if he waited for her with the El Camino. He would have waited for her without the promise of food, of course, but he didn't want _her_ to know that lest he have to do it all the time. Today was different, anyway. The snow was already coming down in thick sheets of sleet, Point Place could see a full-raging blizzard in a matter of minutes, and it would probably be dark in another hour or so. There was no way he was leaving Jackie to make her way home in that.

            In any case, the conversation between the two small cheerleaders quickly grew heated. Jackie stood up from her seat so suddenly that her chair scraped loudly against the linoleum floor and tipped over with a _crash_. She snatched her jacket from the back of the chair, face very obviously flushed with anger, so he quickly shoved his last few fries in his mouth and fished in his pockets for his keys.

            “You know, you're sounding more and more like _him_ every day!” the friend, whatever her name was, snaps. Her voice was venomous, and she sneered _him_ as she threw what might have been a threatening glare his way… if she wasn't four-foot-nothing and wearing thick woolly mittens over the hand she jabs in his direction.

            Jackie visibly bristles at the tone, but says nothing in return. She's too busy trying to jam her arms in her sleeve, pull her scarf out from inside her coat, and balance her purse all at once. After watching her struggle for a beat, Hyde takes the bag from her hand, and pulls on one end of the thick wool scarf so it slides out and she can fit her arm through the hole. He hastily loops the scarf loosely around her neck twice, but he keeps holding her bag for her as she does up the coat with shaking hands. She's saying something in a shrill voice the whole time, but by the time Jackie is ready to go, the friend has already driven away.

            The ride back to the Forman's is pretty quiet. Hyde bites his tongue absently as he wonders whether or not he should say anything to her. Glancing her way tells him that Jackie is still pretty steamed. Both her arms and legs are crossed tight in a slump against the seat. She stared straight ahead through the windshield. She didn't even say anything when he set her bag in the trunk instead of the back seat where she usually liked it. He had too much stuff taking up space back there, anyway, but usually she would make a point of telling him to clean out his garbage. She's pouting too, he realizes, when he glances at her again, pretending to be checking his blind spot so he doesn’t get caught.

            When they get back he parks his car on the street, and gets out to grab Jackie's bag from the trunk for her. He absently walks the long way around the car, pausing to open her door the way she likes him to, but he draws the line at physically helping her to get out. She takes the bag, and the furrow in her brow disappears for a few moments as she thanks him and smiles up at him as sweetly as she usually does. Jackie uses her other hand to grab Hyde's free one, which was still extended from handing her the purse. He lets her lead him to Donna's door with their palms pressed together, but takes his hand back when they get there.

            Jackie says good night, but he puts his hand on top of hers when she moves to turn the doorknob without another word. She can see him working his jaw in thought.

            “Is... everything alright?” he asks tensely, as though he only half wants to know if knowing means he's gonna have to stand in front of Donna's door for the next half an hour listening to why she most certainly is _not_ alright.

            But she surprises him when she gives him another small smile and nods. “Yup. Everything's peachy. Thanks for driving me home.”

            The 'thank you' feels a little bit odd. It's not that Jackie doesn't usually say thank you for rides, especially rides that she had asked for in advance, but the whole sentence feels vaguely awkward. So, he studies her mismatched eyes for a moment longer before he finally accepts it and lets her hand go. She lets Hyde kiss her soundly before she goes inside, too, so he takes that to mean whatever is wrong doesn't have anything to do with him.

            _It's fine,_ he tells himself. He'll probably get to hear about it in the morning, after she’s had a chance to bug Donna with whatever it was.

 

\-----

 

            “Do you think I sound like Steven?” asks Jackie, after twenty minutes of dead silence between her and Donna in their shared living space. Jackie had been strangely quiet ever since returning from whatever she had been doing with Hyde, but it felt like a can of worms that Donna just did not want to open so late at night. “Donna? Do you think I do?”

            “Yes, sure,” replies Donna, in a tone that suggests she's probably only half listening. She's also licking the tip of her finger and flipping a page in the textbook she's been reading. Jackie either does not pick up on the bored tone in Donna's voice, or doesn't care.

            “Really?”

            “Yeah. I mean, you say the stuff he says sometimes. Like a parrot, kinda. It was bound to happen, you _do_ spend a lot of time around him.”

            “Right, ok...” Jackie pauses. “Do you think that annoys him?”

            “Probably,” says Donna, in the same unaffected tone. “But to be fair, I really don't think there's all that much that doesn't annoy Hyde at least a little.”

            Jackie chews over this answer for a few moments, looking down at her own homework (which she had opened in her lap but hadn't made any effort to do yet). Out of the corner of her eye, Donna watches Jackie look up at her and open her mouth a few times before turning away again, as though she wanted to ask something else, but not saying whatever it is that's on her mind. With a sigh, Donna puts a knick-knack from her bedside table into the book to mark her page and moves it onto the now-free surface.

            Seeing Donna give her full attention, Jackie slams her own books shut and drops them on the floor beside her little cot. “Shannon made some dumb comment today at _The Hub_ , and it made me mad so I called her out on it. She said I'm starting to sound more and more like Steven. Do you think that really annoys him?”

            The look on Jackie's face told Donna that the initial impulse she felt to chuckle would not have been correct in this situation, so she just looks down and tries to look pensive for an appropriate amount of time. Jackie's eyes are serious and her mouth is set in a thin line. The thought sincerely bothered her. It was weird, honestly. Since when did Jackie give a crap whether she was bothering Steven? Jackie could honestly write the most amazing papers if she could use her skills at over-analysis of everything in real life even _half_ as well in _Huckleberry Finn_.

            “If Hyde was annoyed with you, you would know. Did he say anything about it to you after you guys left?” Jackie thought for a moment before furrowing her brow again and shaking her head. “Then you're probably fine. Don't worry about it too much.”

            “ _Probably,_ ” repeats Jackie, dubiously.

            “Even if you are starting to sound a little like Hyde– Look, I said _a little!–_ I don't think that would really annoy him. If it did, he'd tell you to knock it off. He's probably just glad to finally hear someone else validating the conspiracy crap he's always spouting.”

            Jackie is quiet for another minute, mulling over what Donna said. On the one hand, it made _some_ sense. There's no reason to get all worried about it if Steven hasn't complained about it at all. After all, Steven had never hesitated before about telling her to shut it whenever she was doing something that annoyed him. If he hadn't said anything now, it _was_ probably okay. She would just have to try and be a little more conscious of what she said and how from now on, to make _absolutely certain_ it didn't get on his nerves.

            “...It's not _crap_ , Donna,” she finally says, picking up her textbook again and smiling tentatively back at the redhead across the room– who raised her eyebrow in response. “Steven is _very_ intelligent, even if _you_ don't get it.”

            Donna snorts with laughter momentarily before getting back to her own work too.

            Maybe it was stupid, but they had come so far together since they first started dating. The way they thought and felt about each other had really changed, really developed into _something._ Jackie didn't want Hyde to decide to stop talking to her because all he hears when she speaks is himself being parroted back.

 

\-----

 

            Over the next few days, there is an undeniably weird vibe in the Forman's basement. It's too quiet, for once. Either Jackie wasn't there at all, or she sat quietly on the couch and observed conversations as they took place around her without weighing in. It was _weird_. Hyde had never thought that he would be more unnerved by Jackie _not_ talking than when she talked too much.

            It didn't seem like anything was _wrong_ exactly _._ When she got there on the third day, Jackie still immediately crossed the room and positioned herself in his lap the way she always did. She lifted both her legs and trusted him to hold her up comfortably against him, without a moment of hesitation. She rested her head against his shoulder the way she usually did when they all sat around the television. He didn't mind; she was always so warm, and the basement was freezing this time of year. The whole arrangement reeked of the same affection that Jackie usually put forward in their relationship. It wasn't that she was disengaged from the conversation, either. Jackie still giggled at Kelso and Fez from time to time. She just, for the first time in her life, refused to participate. Everything else was normal but she was too _quiet,_ and Hyde didn't like it one bit.

            There was nothing he could do about it, though. Not with everyone still sitting around them, watching and listening. He tried to wait them out, but after an hour or so Jackie extricated herself from his grip and said she had to get to work soon. Everyone said goodbye to her, the same as usual, but no one else moved.

            As soon as Jackie was out the door, he regretted not offering to drive her again. She had her own car and the weather was supposed to be fine for the time being, so she probably wouldn't have accepted anyway, especially with how she was avoiding being alone with him. He rubbed his hands against his knees, debating on following her outside and trying to catch her before she left, but thought better of it. If he hopped up and hurried to chase after her, he would have to hear smart ass comments from everyone else for ages.

            Four hours later, around dinner time, the Forman's and Hyde are sitting around the dinner table when the phone rang. Kitty tells Red to just let it ring and to eat his food while it’s hot, but Red answers it anyway. He greets whoever is on the other end of the line gruffly before immediately pulling the phone away from his ear and looking at Hyde.

            “It's the loud one. Must be for you?”

            Hyde tries not to look too eager to talk to her as he pushes his chair back and gets up. Red hands him the phone and goes back to his seat, but everyone is watching the conversation with quiet interest. Unable to take the side-eye that Eric is giving him over his peas, Hyde turns around before he answers.

            “Jackie?” he asks. There's some crackling on the line, and he can hear wind blowing hard into the receiver.

            “Hi Steven,” replies a small voice. It's really difficult to hear her over that wind, so he unconsciously pressed the phone closer to his ear. There is another pause before she says anything, even though he’s loudly asking her what’s wrong. He can hear her sniffle and clear her throat, and he wonders if she's been crying long. Just with those two words he can tell that she's got this barely-there warbling sound in her voice, so she must be upset. He waits for her to tell him what's up, but nothing else comes out.

            He tries to ask calmly, “Why are you calling the Forman's, shouldn't you be heading home about now?” but it comes out all in a rush, and a little more harshly and loudly than he intended it to. If you asked him he would never admit it, but he was immediately worried. It sounded like Jackie was outside, not driving home the way she should be at this time of night. A quick glance out the window told him it was already dark out, and the weather channel had been wrong. Snow was starting to fall pretty heavily, and it was freezing cold outside. If Jackie wasn't on the road, there _had_ to be something wrong.

            “I wasn't calling _the Forman's,_ I was calling _you_ ,” she answers indignantly, before anything else. There's another sniffle. The wind keeps howling. Hyde pinches the bridge of his nose.

            “Jackie–”

            “My car broke down. It's on High St. I walked to this payphone a few blocks over, but I don't know what street this is.” Hyde sucks in a breath. It's dark, it's freezing cold, and Jackie has no car to get home.

            “What happened to the car?” he asks.

            “ _I don't know, Steven, I just–!_ ”

            “No,” he says quickly, “I just mean, can you go sit in it while you wait for me? Lock the doors, turn on the heat if you can.”

            “There's smoke coming from the hood,” replies Jackie, her voice sounding smaller under another blast of wind. “I don't think I want to sit in it.”

            The clock next to the stove says that it is already well after 8p.m., so most of the family-run stores in the middle of town will be shutting down for the night at this point. Depending on which direction she walked, Jackie might be even further from the only restaurant he knew in that area. “I know, but it'd probably be better than waiting in the wind. Just don't turn the car back on, we'll figure that thing out in the morning. For now, just go lock yourself in, okay? I'll be there to pick you up in like fifteen minutes. Turn your hazards on so I don't pass you. Okay?”

Jackie is quiet for a minute, before she gives a quiet, “Okay.”

Then the line goes dead.

            As he puts on his own coat, Hyde gives everyone at the table an abbreviated version of what was happening. Before he could rush out the door, Kitty grabbed a hold of his sleeve. She pushes her own coat, a retro-looking violet thing with a fur-lined hood and fleece lining, telling him Jackie will probably want layers.

            Red yells at him to drive carefully from the doorway as Hyde runs to where he parked his car on the street. His hands shake as he cleans off the thick layer of snow that has already accumulated over the vehicle, muttering furious curses under his breath the whole time.

By the time he turns the key in the ignition, it has already been ten minutes. He readjusts the vents to point more at his hands on the freezing steering wheel. It also occurs to him to point one vent down at the coat where he left it on the passenger seat. Hyde cranks the heater’s dial as high as it will go.

 

\-----

 

            The roads are completely abandoned as Hyde drives through the thick wet snow. It's like a combination snow/sleet medley that forces him to kick his wipers all the way up into full gear to maintain visibility through the windshield. The car’s tires skid every time he pushes the breaks, and in a way, he’s almost relieved that Jackie isn’t going to be driving in this anyway.

There's only one car parked on High St. when he turns the corner, its hazard lights blinking rhythmically in the dark. Hyde pulls the El Camino up directly behind it but does not turn it off as he gets out. The white car’s wheels seem to be sunk pretty deep into a snow drift, and its back end is still half in the lane.

            Jackie is inside with her seat pulled all the way back and her knees drawn up into her chest. She's a little ball in the front seat, though he can barely see her through the fog on her windows. He immediately tries the door and finds it locked. Jackie jumps when he taps his knuckles against the window. Her wide mismatched eyes turn up to see him and her entire posture floods with relief. In a matter of moments, the lock pops, she jumps up out of her seat, and she throws her body full-force against his. He stumbles to maintain balance, sliding on some hidden ice, but ultimately manages to wrap an arm around her so he's half-carrying-half-dragging her back to his car. Jackie's shivering like crazy against him, and still sniffling, so he rushes to usher her into the passenger side. He tells her to put on the jacket there, and when he gets back into the driver side he quickly pushes his own heater vent to face her too.

            He noticed that Jackie's nose wrinkles when she gets a look at Kitty's jacket, but she's too cold to complain. It almost makes him laugh that the size of the coat is almost perfect.

            “Are you okay?” he asks her, pulling back onto the road. The tires spin for a moment before the car kicks forward.

            “Yeah. Stupid car,” Jackie murmurs to herself venomously. Her teeth chatter behind slightly blue-tinged lips. “They don't build anything to last, these days, you know?” Another hilarious comment coming from the tiny brunette, materialist that she was. “Everything lasts for, like, a couple months, and then it just falls apart so you have to go buy a new one. It's gotta be some kind of...”

            Suddenly, she stops and turns her eyes out her window.

            “… Conspiracy?” finishes Hyde, glancing at her out of the corner of his eye with an amused, wry little smile. He feels better now that he knows she's not out sitting in her car by herself in the middle of the night. Less agitated, maybe.

            Jackie clams right up again, chewing her bottom lip and clutching the sleeves of Kitty's coat tighter around her. Ever since she had started working for herself, since her dad landed himself in prison and she was forced to learn how to get by without her mom and all their money, she had started saying stuff like that sometimes. It was as though she was steadily learning an appreciation for what she had, even if she could still be pretty narcissistic sometimes. Hyde liked to see that he influenced her like that. It made him feel like he could be a positive influence on her, the way he sometimes felt like she could be on his with the way she just _cared_ about stuff. Not that he could ever say _that_ to anyone.

            The quiet that follows is that same stifling silence that's been permeating the basement atmosphere for the last few days. It bothers him so much that he moves to try to start another conversation with her, but Jackie interrupts by sneezing violently. Hyde automatically tries to crank up the heat a little more for her, but the dial resists being turned any further, already maxed out. He curses under his breath.

            “You warmin' up any?” he asks. Looking at her and watching her shiver like that almost bothers him more than her being too quiet does.

            Jackie nods, but realizes he's keeping a close eye on the road as they reach a particularly slippery unplowed side street, so she offers a quiet, “Yeah, thanks. I'm okay now.”

            After that short exchange follows another seven long minutes of complete silence. The heater wheezes hot air into the car and the windshield wipers keep scraping against the glass, but neither of them say another damn word. He watches every minute tick by on the dashboard's Malibu clock. Finally, he can't take it any longer. The quiet is even more deafening than the most mindless of Jackie's usual chatter. Lately they had even been having pretty interesting conversations when they were alone together, but over the last three days she had been too deliberate in her attempts _not_ to be alone talking to him.

            “So, you gonna tell me what's up with you?” he asks. He folds his tongue in his mouth, contemplating his choice in phrasing, before he adds: “Because it just seems like... You've been acting all... careful. I don't know. Around me. Something up?”

            The continued silence only makes him think he's right. There's a tight feeling brewing in his stomach that he doesn't like, so he presses on.

            “Look, you're the one who always says we should talk about more stuff like this, aren't you? I'm trying.”

            “I know, Steven,” she says softly, “I'm sorry.”

            “I need details there, Jacks. What do you have to be sorry for?”

            “I don't know. Annoying you?”

            Hyde huffs a laugh, “When has that ever been something you apologize for? Besides, it's not like you stalled your car in the middle of a blizzard on purpose. Shit happens.”

            Jackie twists her fingers in the fur lining of Kitty's coat. Hyde is honestly surprised she hasn't made an actual comment about it yet; she must have been _really_ cold.

            “I didn't really... mean about that.”

            Now he's even more lost than before. It's starting to get frustrating; since when is talking to Jackie like pulling teeth trying to get information? Usually the trick was getting her to stop with the information overload. He makes a conscious effort to bite back his tone of annoyance when he asks her what exactly she was sorry for, then.

            “I'm sorry that I… _sound_ like you, I guess?” she says, turning almost entirely in her seat to look absently out of the window, and away from him. “Like, when I talk. Shannon says I sound like you now, and Donna agreed when I asked her the other night, so I've been trying to stop but, I mean, we spend a lot of time together now and sometimes it just slips out and–”

            Once the flood gates are opened, everything that she's been holding back for the last three days comes rushing out all in one breath. Despite his best effort to follow along, Hyde gets lost around the point where she starts talking about something stupid Kelso said the morning before, and burning Fez, despite the fact that it's also several hours late and he's not even present to feel her wrath. By the time she finishes the rant, she's breathing heavily. Hyde had pulled up to the Forman's at least five minutes ago. He was just sitting and waiting for her to finish the ramble. The car is already covered in snow again.

            “Look,” says Hyde, when Jackie's pause is accompanied by an expectant look rather than serving as a brief opportunity for her to gulp down more oxygen, “I don't know who told you it bothered me to hear you sayin' stuff that sounds like stuff I'd say, but it doesn't. At all. Is this a _you_ thing? Does it bother _you_ that talkin' to me makes you 'sound' like me?”

            Jackie quickly shakes her head, looking somewhat affronted at the suggestion.

            “Good then,” Hyde nods, turning his car off and removing the key from the ignition. “Then we don't have a problem. If you'd _honestly_ think I would be annoyed with you for _listening_ to me then you're even crazier than I thought you were.”

            The answer makes her laugh out loud, just a little. The tension eases out of her body in waves. It is honestly exhausting to be so conscious and careful with every word that comes out of your mouth. Jackie breathes a sigh of relief, suddenly feeling much warmer than she had in the last forty minutes.

            The engine promptly dies when the key is removed, and the cold immediately seeps into the edges of the warm little bubble that Hyde had created. When Jackie gets out she looks towards the Pinciotti's, where the porch light is still on and awaiting her return, but Hyde pauses next to her. She decides to follow Hyde into the basement instead.

            They walk through the garage and he holds the door for her when they get to the bottom of the stairs. Jackie ignores Donna and Eric where they sit close together on the couch, especially when Eric attempts to take a jab her by asking about her car trouble. She doesn't stop to look, but it sounded like Hyde threw his keys at him on his way past and up the stairs to the kitchen. It makes her hide a small smile.

            She walks into the room without hesitation, like she's done it a thousand times. Kitty's coat is quickly shed and her own coat and Cheese Girl uniform are traded for one of Steven's band shirts; she doesn't recognize the name of the group whatsoever at all, but it smells like Steven and it is the most comfortable thing to wear when they're lying together in his bed. Jackie immediately climbs into Steven's bed and wraps herself in the comforter to try and ease the last of the chill in her bones.

          When Steven returns, he brings with him two plates of food, presumably left behind for them by Kitty. He places the simple sandwich and assorted veggies in Jackie's lap where she's sitting cross-legged on his cot, but doesn't pull away until he's given her the chance to redistribute the vegetables on the plates. He knows that Jackie hates broccoli with a passion, so he freely hands off his carrots in exchange for her greens. Jackie chats with him about work absently as they eat. It surprises him how much he's missed listening to her just _chat_ over the last few days.

            Hyde can't keep the smile from spreading over his lips. He knows he's too deep into this by far, but he doesn't even feel inclined to pump the brakes.

            Jackie regards him strangely, tucking her hair behind her ear. “What are you looking at, Steven?” she asks. She gives him this coy grin, pouting her lips.

            “Did it on purpose, you know? Can't believe I made you think you were annoyin’ me when it was my fault you were talking like me in the first place.”

            Jackie's smile falls quickly. “What are you talking about?” 

            “When I noticed you starting to do this 'repeat-after-me' thing, I had to see how far I could push it. You picked up so much old time-y shit, Jackie, it's no wonder people are starting to make comments. Just surprised you never noticed. I never thought _I'd_ have to let you in on the joke.”

            Laughter bubbles up at Jackie's surprised expression; he can almost see her cycling through all of the goofy shit he's had her saying over the last couple weeks. Her mouth opens and closes a couple times. He's waiting for the explosion, for her to get mad and storm out and interrupt Donna and Eric in the other room, but to his surprise she doesn't move. Instead, she tightens her grip on his comforter and flops over on top of the seam, giggling softly to herself.

            “You realize _you_ have been saying all this weird old stuff too, though?” she laughs triumphantly. “ _Just_ to see whether or not I'll start saying it after we spend time together! Steven, that's _so_ cute!”

            Now it's his turn to be flabbergasted. That's not _remotely_ the response he was expecting to that confession. He jumps at her from across the room, aiming to dig his fingers into her ribs and make her squeal instead of laughing at him, but her blanket cocoon fortifies her against his attempts to assault her person.

Jackie slips her cold fingers out of the bundle and puts them on either side of his face, kissing him soundly instead.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for getting all the way to this point? I ended up not liking this as much as I did when I first conceived the idea, but I spent WAY too long on it not to post. I hope you enjoyed it anyway. Please push that kudos if you did, it really means a lot to me. Off to the next project!


End file.
